If you can create an item of content, whether it be video or a simple picture that’s worth a thousand words, you can spend very little money, sometimes none at all, and capture a huge audience.  It doesn’t have to be anything crazy or over-complicated.

Let me give you another example.  I was at dinner last night when I noticed the label on the pepper at the table.  Tip N’ Grind.  Now, here’s how this company could take less than 10 minutes out of one of their designer’s time to create something that will be passed around and bring free exposure for years.  I present… the Tip N’ Grind inspiration sign.

Tip N' Grind

Now, you know very well that you will remember that.  Maybe even the next time you are in the store and notice it you will purchase their brand “just because.”  That is the beauty of viral marketing.  Best of all, that took just 5 minutes to download the pic and photoshop the border and text to create a viral piece of material.

And I’m off to forward the “inspirational sign” above to all of my contacts and begin the annoying forward trend. 

If you keep attracting the same type of client, and I mean that in a bad way, then maybe there is something that you are able to change on your end.  If you want the same small $100 freelance jobs here and there, then great.  We’ve all started there at some point.  But, f you want to attract clients with larger budgets then you have to stop thinking like the small motel and start thinking like the large hotel.

Wipeless Internet

The small details matter.  If you want to get into building a big business online you have to present yourself as a professional.  If you are going to do anything, do it right.  Here are a couple items you should take into consideration when trying to grow, or even just start, your own online business.

Get a good domain
When choosing your domain you want to keep it short and precise.  Choose a domain that represents either your company name or your company product/service.  Avoid over-complicating your domain by trying to stuff a sales pitch into it.  For example, let’s say you run a web design service in New York and each year you hold a convention to promote web services in the New York area.  Instead of dragging out the domain with something like newyorkwebdesignsummit.com, keep it simple.  Go with newyorksummit.com.  The shorter you can keep the domain, while still maintaining a relative domain name, the better.

One of the most popular domain registrars is currently GoDaddy.

Pay For Hosting
If you want to look professional, be professional.  Few things look less professional than a “free” hosted website (continue reading below to see what one of those other “few things” are).  Something like www.geocities.com/mybusiness.  If you are not willing to not spend a few dollars a month to increase your marketability by paying for a good host then why would a customer feel you are worth spending a few dollars on either?

“Real” Email Addresses
Part of a paid hosting account includes the ability to set up your own email accounts.  This is one of those “things” that look extremely unprofessional as well.  Have you ever started up a conversation with someone you meet at somewhere like a restaurant or bar and they talk themselves up as the next big thing?  They just started a business, have all these great ideas and talk of investors, etc.  An eternity later the conversation wraps up and you go to exchange information and they give you their email address of joeschmoe21@yahoo.com?  As bad as that sounds, you could be putting yourself in that position too if you do not host your own site to maintain your own “real” email address.

Business Cards
I will admit, I am guilty of this one from time to time.  Not that I do not have my own business cards, but sometimes I just don’t have them with me when I meet someone new.

What could be worse then exchanging contact information with joeshcmoe21@yahoo.com?  How about when joeschmoe21@yahoo.com writes his info down on a napkin?

Web Design
We’re moving along nicely.  You have your business cards and new web host.  Now you need to make your site look good.  Your fancy new business cards and “real” email address would be worthless if they direct people to an unprofessional website, right?  Just imagine how caught off guard you would be if your new contact spoke highly of himself, exchanged contact info with you and presented a flashy business card with a catchy website on there and you go to the site and it says “coming soon”.

Here’s where the fun starts though.  Now that you’ve given this person your info, presented a nice business card and they see your contact info they are probably going to check out your website at some point.  Make your site look how you want to be perceived.  If you want people thinking your a nice and quaint local business, then run with a clean design to represent accordingly.  If you run a “one man show”, but want to look like the CEO of a 100+ staffed operation then do it!  Build yourself a website that will display that.  Remember, you are as big as you make people think you are.

Over the years, this last year more particularly, I’ve noticed this trend in others as well.  I think sometimes we get so excited when thinking about the “dream” of working from home and/or being rich.  We get so focused on trying to accomplish that dream that we start cranking out ideas.  The more ideas you think of the more your thoughts expand and, then again, the more ideas you get.  This can be bad though.

I’ve seen many people in this last year trying so hard to find the right blog niche for them to blog about, the right topic to make a site about, etc. After spreading their efforts so thin all they are left with is 40 different websites, all of which are doing nothing.

If you want to avoid Entrepreneur A.D.D. I would suggest picking one idea and sticking to that one idea.  Find that best paying blog topic that fits you.  Blog about it for a few weeks and see if you like it.  If you don’t, there’s nothing wrong with minimizing your losses and moving onto another topic.  If you move on though make sure you actually move on.  Sell your old domain, or just get rid of it.  If you hang onto it you’ll come back to it after your next effort too.  It’s like when you break up with someone you immediately want to get in touch with the person you were with before them.  It’s a comfort thing.

Content is important.  What is equally important is how you display that content to your viewers.  Are you going to blog about something?  Would your site grow faster if you started it with a message board/forum?

Also, how much time do you want to put into maintaining the site?  With a blog you have to update it fairly regularly to keep your readers loyalty.  Forums are nice because, once they’re built up, you don’t have to do anything.  Your community members contribute new content daily.  The tricky part to that is it takes some time to build up a forum.  If you can go through the trenches for the first year or two, it’ll be smooth sailing after that.  Traditional websites are kind of a little of both of the above.  You don’t have to contribute as regularly as a blog or forum, but you can’t let it sit forever.  You will want to add some new content every once in a while just to keep the site “fresh”.  With a static site you should take your time and do it right.  If your site has really great, informative content then you can let that content cycle for months before having to do any updates.

Picture gallery sites are also popular.  They are easy to maintain and can bring lots of visitors.  However, people come to view pictures, not content.  So, there’s your con with photo galleries.  You can have thousands and thousands of views as people click “Next” hundreds of times to go from one photo to the next and you still haven’t earned a penny, because no one is clicking on your adspace.

Below is an example of a reader that sent us a screenshot of their high-volume gallery views, but low adsense return.

Gallery Adsense

To some, the ease of running a gallery for a couple dollars here and there is more realistic than having a lot of time to spend to try and generate more money with a content site.  When it comes to making money online, would you rather make 45 minute updates every week, or dedicate one full day to writing some great content and then not having to worry about it for quite some time?  The best decision depends on your circumstances.